Technical Field
Technology disclosed herein relates to a driving assistance device, a driving assistance method, and a computer readable medium.
Related Art
Technology has been proposed for assisting driving of a vehicle by an occupant (for example, a driver). A device that, in order to increase safety of automatic driving control of the vehicle, issues a notification to the occupant prompting disengagement of automatic driving when specific conditions for automatic driving are not fulfilled during automatic driving of a vehicle is known as an example of technology for assisting driving of a vehicle (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2014-106854.
Moreover, technology is known that disengages automatic driving of a vehicle when switching to manual driving in cases in which determination is made that vehicle safety can be assured, in order to appropriately switch from automatic driving that assists driving of the vehicle to manual driving by the occupant (for example, see JP-A No. 2010-264829). Moreover, such technology enables notifications to be issued prompting the occupant to switch to manual driving when automatic driving cannot continue.
However, in cases in which a notification prompting disengagement of automatic driving or notification prompting a switch to manual driving is made, there are concerns that automatic driving may be disengaged without the occupant realizing that transition was made to manual driving as a result of, for example, the occupant being unable to confirm the notification, and smooth transition to manual driving may not be possible. Moreover, in some cases the occupant may think that authority over driving is entrusted to the vehicle side, and the occupant may be less vigilant than when driving manually, and may adopt a negligent attitude toward driving during automatic driving that assists driving of the vehicle. In such cases, there are concerns that there may be a switch from automatic driving to manual driving while the occupant remains unprepared for the transition to manual driving, and smooth transitioning to manual driving may not be possible.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a driving assistance device, a driving assistance method, and a driving assistance program that are capable of presenting information perceivable by the occupant to enable the occupant to smoothly transition to manual driving.